Felix Moeller's FORBIDDEN FILMS, the still-hidden legacy of Nazi cinema, gets a week's theatrical release -- free! -- at NYC's Film Forum

Felix Moeller is at it again. This German filmmaker and documentarian (I believe he is German but can find no city of birth listed for him anywhere) who in 2010 gave us the interesting documentary, Harlan -- In the Shadow of Jew Süss (all about the director of Jew Süss, one of the more infamous anti-Semitic German films made during World War II), has now gifted us with an even more interesting and important documentary that sheds light on the output of Nazi cinema during this fraught time.

His new work, FORBIDDEN FILMS: The Hidden Legacy of Nazi Film, tackles the what, why and how of this "charged" cinema. As Moeller tells us at the start of his doc, "Between 1933 and 1945, 1200 feature films were made in Germany. After the war, the Allies banned 300 of these as 'propaganda,' and 40 of them remain restricted today." Why this is so, and what could or should be done about it is Moeller's subject, and he offers up a number of worthwhile viewpoints -- from damn-the-torpedoes-and-just-show-these-films to a philosophy of keep-them-censored to something in between.

The bits and pieces we see of several of the movies -- in which the anti-Semitism and pseudo-history is said to be so well executed that the films need to stay censored -- simply make us even more interested in seeing the entire film, while the various talking heads (each of them intelligent, thoughtful and convincing) disagree on how best to handle the archive. (That's a still from The Rothschilds, above, and from Homecoming, below -- the latter of which actually manages to blame Poland for its conquest by the Nazis.

In addition to seeing clips from several of these "forbidden films," we also see and hear a series of talking heads (and sometimes complete bodies) that explain what the films accomplish and why, in some cases, their public screenings need to be at least "monitored." (Some, pirated, are already available to watch on YouTube, and are used to garner new members by various "hate" groups.)

One of the more disturbing sections of Moeller's movie lets us hear comments from viewers -- some informed by history, others not at all -- about their reactions to the films. Much of this is scary enough to make us better understand why the films have been out of circulation for so long. A French screening of the most notorious of the films (Jew Süss, 'natch) brings out a lot of smart comments from audiences young and old. Notes one person, "Capitalism is hidden behind this image, and then globalization."

We also are faced with the notion of how to "de-Nazify" the movies by editing them -- a very big mistake, I believe. By taking out certain portions, speeches or symbols, the films are de-balled, so to speak, leaving audiences to wonder what the fuss was all about and perhaps even more able to embrace their remaining muffled prejudices.

We learn something about the famous German movie stars of the period, including Emile Jannings (shown far left, of The Blue Angel fame) and his role in Uncle Krüger, and especially an actor less known to us Americans named Heinrich George, shown near left. Perhaps the most interesting portion of the film is devoted to a movie titled I Accuse, and how it was made to pave the way for the Nazi's use of euthanasia.

"Even the Nazis had pre-conditioned 'Christian' consciences," notes one interviewee, regarding the euthanasia push, "so immediately shoving all the 'crazies' into gas chambers would have been too much, even for them." It is quite moving and unsettling to hear the daughter of the late director of I Accuse talk about her father and the film itself before a modern audience of very mixed opinions! Finally, the response of the film's last interviewee will make you think hard.

No lesser "light" than the Nazi's Joseph Goebbels perfectly understood how movies could be the state's most effective form of propaganda, and he saw to it that this propaganda was created and executed on a populace that embraced it whole-hog -- a reaction not unlike America's to the recent Clint Eastwood movie, American Sniper. Back in the time of WWII, audiences of all ages flocked to film the way they do today to TV and (for younger folks, at least) the internet. Give uninformed and somewhat frightened audiences the chance to root for their own country -- whatever foul endeavor in which it might be engaged -- and you can be certain the majority will do just that. (Shown below is the archive where these Nazi films are currently kept.)

Overall, Forbidden Films  -- from Zeitgeist Films and running 94 minutes -- opens up so many disparate but necessary avenues of thought about what censorship is and when, if ever, it might be worthwhile, that it's a must-see. How very fine it is that this documentary (along with three screenings of the complete Jew Süss) will make its theatrical debut this Wednesday, May 13, at New York City's Film Forum, with free admission for all audiences -- including the special screenings of Jew Süss -- on a first-come/first served basis for its entire one-week run. This is thanks to both the Ostrovsky Family Fund and to the Joan S. Constantiner Fund for Jewish and Holocaust Films.

Special note: 

For Los Angeles-based viewers, the Laemmle chain 

will screen the documentary at all six of its venues 

at 7:30 PM on Monday, June 1, and at 1 PM on Tuesday, 

June 2, as part of its weekly series Culture Vulture.

For more information, click here.

GENERATION WAR: Kolditz/Kadelbach's look at WWII German youth opens at NYC's Film Forum

First things first: GENERATION WAR, the lengthy new German entertainment that opens in New York City tomorrow at Film Forum is television. However, it is not American television but the European variety (specifically German), which raises it a few notches above what we get over here from our major networks. (Our cable channels are another matter.) Four-and-one-half hours long, the "movie" is shown in two parts, the second of which is by far the stronger. The first part, while it draws you in somewhat, seems a bit too fraught with both coincidence and the kind of predictable events that television loves so well. The longer second section is where the growth and change most occur, in which the characters deepen, events coalesce, the noose tightens and finally closes.

The subject here is also telling, and it must have been even more so for the German populace (it was an enormous success in Germany, in the manner, I am guessing, that both our own Roots and Holocaust series took American television by storm), for it involves five young friends (shown above) in the Berlin of 1941 -- kids, really -- as Hitler's war rages at its fullest, when it looks to many, and not just to Germans, as though the Fuhrer might indeed win his campaign and, with Italy and Japan at his side, conquer the world.

As written by Stefan Kolditz (shown at left) and directed by Philipp Kadelbach (shown bleow), along with the very big budget, the program looks quite good in terms of period, decor, costumes and all the rest. And because the cast, in both leading and supporting roles is made up of faces that most Americans will not know or have previously seen, rather than those of big-name stars (à la the current Butler movie), this lends the series another coat of veracity.

Because two of our five friends are soldiers and one of the two women is a nurse at the Russian front, Generation War is indeed a "war movie" for much of its length, and as such is a pretty good one.

The strangest thing for most Americans will be to experience this war from the German side, as the movie allows us to do. This forces us to identify with and to some extent root for these young people, and the effect is odd and disturbing. Add to all this the disturbances felt by the main char-acters as everything they know and have been taught starts to fall apart, and you have the makings of some-thing richly provocative and equally unsettling -- as well as something that we in American almost never get to see. Nor, I wager, have they seen this much in Germany. "What did you do in the war, Gramps and Granny?" is a question probably asked in Deutschland rather more often since the airing of Generation War.

The series moves back and forth from Germany to Russia and Poland, from the fighting to the hospital (above) to the Berlin homes of the Germans, and because one of our five friends is a Jew, we see antisemi-tism raise its ugly head in ways small and huge -- in all three countries (the Poles seem to hate the Jews every bit as much as do the Germans).

There are four tales going on simultaneously here. The first involves the two soldiers -- who are also brothers -- one a gung-ho hero type (Volker Bruch, above, right), the other (Tom Schilling, above, left ) a retiring, intellectual who wants nothing to do with fighting. Both change drastically over the course of the story.

The girl who loves the older brother and works as a nurse at the hospital on the Russian front is played quite well by Miriam Stein (above). Her story -- which takes a happy, healthy pro-Nazi into situations that will test her decency and leave her bereft -- is in some ways the most interesting and original of the bunch.

The other two characters are the young woman (Katharina Schuttler, above, right, and below) who wants a musical career -- which she gets, in spades -- and her boyfriend, Viktor (Ludwig Trepte, above, left), whom she tries to save via the sleazy Nazi official she uses to both further her career and save her lover. (Interestingly, it's the Nazi who ends up in the catbird seat, as happened, post-war, with so many of these killers.)

Ironies, big and small, pile up over the course of the series, leading to a dark, angry finish, in which our sweet kids, below, not yet even 25, have turned into empty husks. Those who are still alive, at least.

Generation War, from Music Box Films, opens tomorrow at Film Forum in New York City, and in the weeks to come will open in at least nine more cities across the country. You can see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters buy clicking here and then clicking on THEATERS halfway down the screen.

Tinto's brassy SALON KITTY (1976) brings some awfully naughty Nazis to Blu-ray

What in the world? Trust-Movies had heard about SALON KITTY off and on for more than three decades since its release in 1976. Riding the wave of Radley Metzger soft-core and Gerard Damiano hard-core, Italian impresario/
would-be history buff/sexcapade connoisseur Tinto Brass came up with the marketable notion of combining the sex and decadence of Visconti's The Damned (including two of its stars, Ingrid Thulin and Helmut Berger) with the based-on-fact tale of a brothel catering to important Nazi military men that simultaneously recorded their most debauched activities, while assessing the level of their fidelity to the Führer.

To this end, the brothel must be stocked with the cream of the Aryan crop -- ladies who were both gorgeous and loyal to National Socialism. In what is definitely Signore Brass' (shown at right) finest moment, the recruitment and training of these young ladies are shown to us in the kind of full-bodied (and then some!) attention-to-detail that might be described as eye-opening and shocking -- if it weren't so damned funny. Not simply full of full-frontal (and this goes for both the gals and the guys), the movie's private parts are often played with, decorated and -- in my favorite moment -- used a bulls-eye by a randy Reich marksman.

The young ladies first appear to us in military uniform (above) looking exceedingly daunting. And then, uh, out of uniform, below.

Soon they are introduced to the cream of the SS, who, when called upon to serve their country in an unusual new manner (below) are more than willing to strip --

and, as it were, engage....

Up to this point, what we've seen is simply raunchy, randy, rather silly fun.  But then our young ladies must be trained to service every possible type of desire, and at this point things take a decidedly more unusual turn.

In these short scenes, I think, the movie reaches its pinnacle and nadir simultaneously -- jolting us beyond mere titillation and turn-on into something that touches the profoundly trangressive because it combines things we don't often see, let alone think about, in the same frame.

All this takes place within the first half hour or so of the movie, and once the brothel has been set up -- Mr Berger (above, in Nazi drag) plays as the officer in charge and Ms Thulin the madam -- the film wanders into more typical  territory, with the young whore we get to know best (Teresa Ann Savoy, above, with Berger, and below) falling in love with a military man (Bekim Fehmiu, below, right) who's had second thoughts about Socialism, Nazi-style.

Did I mention that the movie offer a collection of musical numbers, too? Yes, with Ms Thulin (below) singing her heart out in English -- or perhaps she's been dubbed. Here, Brass filches from Fosse's Cabaret, but the numbers at least make for interesting filler.

Overall, Salon Kitty is an original, all right, but this is not necessarily a recommendation. A crazy combo of cunts (natural, shaved and decorated), cocks (mostly flacid, just like the storytelling, but a few at half-mast or higher) and cabaret, the movie moves too soon from stupidly bold and bizarre to simply soap opera.

For Berger fans, however, the film offers a nice surprise: Throughout the actor has been dressed to the teeth (mostly in Nazi-themed black leather) while around him clothes are coming off like crazy and bodies writhing to beat the band. Finally at the finale, the actor gets his moment in the sun (in the steam room, actually), and, yes, he's a sight to behold.

Salon Kitty is available now, for rental or purchase, on DVD and Blu-ray -- and the transfer for the latter is a damned good one: crisp, rich and bright with gorgeous colors and decent enough sound quality.  Oddly, Netflix doesn't stock the Blu-ray edition, only the DVD, so for Blu-ray, you'll have to go to GreenCine for rental, and for sale, to the film's distributor Blue Underground. (Blockbuster appears to stock the movie, and in Blu-ray, too, but when you click "Get It", you discover that you can't -- a typically annoying Blockbuster move.)